BOSTON 
Appearing at Fenway Park before last night's Boston Red Sox game, former Gov. Paul Cellucci of Hudson kicked off a $10 million campaign to fund amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.

Mr. Cellucci, 63, a former Hudson selectman and state senator, lieutenant governor and ambassador to Canada, announced in January that he had been diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Gehrig, a New York Yankees baseball great, died at 37 in 1941, a year after he was stricken with the illness.

Flanked by his UMass neurologist, Dr. Robert H. Brown Jr., and the medical school's chancellor, Dr. Michael F. Collins, Mr. Cellucci said he would aggressively raise money for the UMass ALS Champion Fund by drawing on contacts from his long career in politics.

“I'm going to be talking to people from my old political network and I hope I can get some support there,” Mr. Cellucci said at a pregame press conference at Fenway. “I'm going to be very active.”

Saying he hopes to reach the $10 million goal in one year, Mr. Cellucci noted that he raised $12 million for his governor's campaign in 1998, and that last year GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker raised $15 million.

“We have a lot of people through the social network and we can really reach out across this country,” Mr. Cellucci said.

While Mr. Cellucci said he feels well and is leading an active life, including continuing to work at his Boston law firm, he looked noticeably thinner than in recent years. He also walks slowly and with a slight limp.

Typical life expectancy for ALS patients after diagnosis is three to five years. Mr. Cellucci and his physician say he has a slow progressing form of the disease, and Mr. Cellucci said he is hopeful that research at UMass can produce therapies that will help him as well as others.

“I'm optimistic that there are therapies out there,” he said.

ALS is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. People with ALS gradually lose muscle function and eventually are unable to perform daily living tasks.

“I feel good. I wake up in the morning and I feel good. I've had no, what you would call, sickness at all,” Mr. Cellucci said. “I'm living my life. I'm working, I'm spending time with my daughters and I'm kicking off this campaign.”

Dr. Collins invoked the memory of Lou Gehrig standing on the first base line at Yankee Stadium in New York and speaking about the deadly disease. He said Mr. Cellucci's involvement will help raise awareness and money for essential research.

“We have the opportunity to change the course of the disease,” Dr. Collins said.

In a brief conversation, Mr. Cellucci, a longtime film buff who still lives in Hudson with his wife, Jan, said he still gets to the movies a few times a month at the Solomon Pond Mall in Berlin.

He said he is usually in Worcester once a week to meet with Dr. Brown.

“He's terrific. He's an amazing man,” Dr. Brown said.

Former acting governor Jane M. Swift, who was on hand with several other Massachusetts political figures, said Mr. Cellucci has been a political mentor and friend to her since she was his running mate and lieutenant governor.

“I'm not surprised he's taken this step,” she said in an interview. “I know lots of people who have asked him if they can help.”

The medical school will administer the ALS fund. Dr. Brown and other physicians and researchers in the school's newly formed Neurotherapeutics Institute will be housed in the new Albert Sherman building when it opens sometime next year, according to school officials.

Mr. Cellucci stepped onto the Fenway baseball diamond just before the start of the Red Sox's game with the Detroit Tigers about 7:10 p.m.. Dr. Collins and Dr. Brown, and Ms. Swift, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and former state Senate President Robert Travaglini accompanied him.

Mr. Cellucci, wearing a bright red Red Sox windbreaker, praised his physician and the medical school, the creation of which he said was “one of the best things state government ever did.” He also announced the name of the fundraising initiative's Web site, www.UMassALS.com.

“Together, they will unlock this disease,” he told the crowd in the rain-dampened stadium.